Happy Birthday to Tal, Happy New Year to You!

It does not seem like a whole year ago that we were having a New Years Eve party, and Talmage decided to interrupt it. But Here we are one year later having a Birthday/New Years Eve Party. I can not believe how quickly this past year has gone. Wow, the older I get, the faster time slips away, and I am not even that old.

We had a pretty fun party. I thought it was so much fun to celibate both New Years Eve, and Tally's Birthday. We had a great spread of food, all the yummy finger foods, a great cake, presents, a New Years Countdown. How could it get better? I always like to make a creative cake for birthday parties. This time I made a Cookie Monster cake. I was so proud of it, and my boys loved it, especially Tal.

After we did all the Birthday festivities, we decied to do the New Year Countdown at 9:30 (Midnight is just a bit too late for my boys, and their cousins). Holy Cow, I think it was my favorite count down ever. Kids just make Holidays fun. They all ran through the house yelling and screaming, tooting on horns, and dancing around.

After the 9:30 Countdown, we figured that there was no way a Midnight Countdown would even compair, so everyone went home. And I fully intend on being in bed by Midnight.

Happy New Year!!!

My Big Brave Boys

My boys are growing up. They are venturing out, trying new things. Talmage started walking last night. I gotta say, it happened a bit earlier than I expected, Owen did not walk until 13 months, and Tal is not yet one. He has been taking a few small steps between Tom and me for a couple of weeks. But last night, Tal was standing up, holding on to the couch, and Tom was sitting in the chair across the room. He just looked at Tom,put his hands up in the air, and off he went. He hasn't stopped since.
Here is an action shot of some of his first solo steps:
Now, Owen, is doing his own kind of growing up. He has been a bit hessitant to play with his new bike. I think the whole Two-Wheel thing is stairing him. So I desided to show him some videos of other little kids playing on their bikes, in hopes to incourage him. So this is what I showed him (these are videos from the makers of his balance bike):





Man, that did the trick. He loves his bike now. He still doen't quite sit on it, but he loves running with it between his legs, and his favorite thing is to do "jumps." It is so cute, he just pulls up on the handle bars, making the wheels bounce. Love it!

Merry Christmas to all!

I love Christmas! I loved the Christmas magic when I was little, and now I love trying to create it for my boys. I started Christmas chopoing this past summer, which I used to think people that Christmas shopped in the summer where crazy, but now I did it. Hey, sometimes you just find the coolest things, and if the price is right, why not. Mostly, I found things at garage sales. I figure, if it is in pristine condition, why should it matter where it came from. Anyway, most of my shopping was completed by the end of the summer, which made me happy, I figured I could spend December actually focusing on having a Christ centered Christmas.
Then I went to the Big Sale at Joann's the day after Thanksgiving, where I got struck with all these brillian ideas of thing I could make for my boys for Christmas. Suddenly, December turned into a month of frantic sewing. Hooded towels, blankets, crayon rolls, matching shirts for Tom, Owen, and Tal, I-Spy Bags. Yep, Lots of sewing. Don't worry, I think we still had a fairly Spiritual Christmas, but I deffinately felt the Christmas pressure this year.

Santa was really nice to the boys this year. Tal got a Fisher Price Noahs Ark, and a tool box, and Owen got an Elmo Chair and a Balance Strider Bike (Awesome!). It was pretty funny when we went to see what Santa left. I asked, "Owen, what do you see?"
He got all excited, "A Boat!!"
Tom asked, "What else?"
"Oh, tools!"
I ask, " Do you see anything else?"
"Elmo Chair!!!"
Really? Come on, the bike was leaning infront of the chair. Come on, it was totally the elephant in the room, and he was completely missing it.

Finally, he saw the bike, and I think he likes it, but he is still trying to figure out the whole two wheeler thing. And Tal loves his Noah and tools.

We also had a some wonderful family parties. I love spending time with family at Christmas. My brother and his family came to visit from Maryland. Tom's brother came down from Idaho Falls. My mom made nativity costumes, and had the grandkids dress up. We got to go to Tom's sister's Chior Concert down at Temple Square.

I just love this time of the year.

Shop til' you drop!

Ever get tired of all this Christmas shopping?



No kidding, he really fell asleep on top of Tom's shoulders. And man he was out, we are talking snoring, drooling, the works. He did not wake up for two more hours.

Vo-KID-ulary

I love to watch my kids grow. I love to see them figure out things, and make new connections. And I especially love to hear their vocabulary expound. Owen had been learning and using a lot of big words in the past couple of months. He does a pretty good job using them correctly, but his pronunciation of some words is pretty funny.
For example:
Motorcycle: he says Michael-cycle
Lightning McQueen: is pronounced Lie-Queen
Scriptures: Scrap-chores
Macaroni: Racaroni
Talmage: Taw-widge
Interesting: Distressing
Football: Hop-Ball, although he used to say Foodball.
"To Infinity and Beyond!": "Sitting in a car!"
Life Cereal is called Cracker Cereal
And KIX he calls Kendell Cereal (Kendell is his cousin).

But here is my favorite. Yesterday, Tom poured himself a tall glass of Orange Juice, then put it down on the table so he could make himself a sandwich. Owen sneaks up, grabs the glass, and takes a big ol' gulp, then says with a smile, "Mmmmm, that was Lidicious!”

The Hunt

One of our favorite Christmas Traditions we did in Oregon was cutting our own tree. Oregon supplies like 90% of all the Christmas Trees in the nation. So there are plenty of Tree farms around, that let you cut your own tree. It is so much fun, I was a little sad that we weren't going to be able to do this year, so we decided that we would get a permit, and go find a tree up in the Mountains.

It turns out that Idaho's Tree cutting laws are a lot more lenient than Utah's, so on Saturday, we headed up to Preston to get a Tree Permit, and start our Tree Hunt Adventure. When we got there, they told us they had just ran out of permits, and we would have to go to Mont Pilar (which is an hour East through the canyon), or wait till Monday to get a permit. For some odd reason, probably routed in High School rivalry, Tom HATES Mont Pilar, and decided that we were not about to grace the town with a visit. But I convinced him that this was just added to the Great Tree Hunt Adventure, and we went and got the permit, then head back to the canyon to find our tree.

Searching for the Tree was actually quite the event in and of it self. We had to hike in a little bit, so Tom tighted a sled to his waiste, so he could pull the kids up the trail. They loved it.

A couple of times, Tom thought we saw the perfect tree, and would leave the trail, and go waiding through the snow to take a closer look.

Meanwhile, Owen and Cousin Liam, who was hanging out with us for the day, played in the snow.

And Talmage stayed on the sled.

Finally, Tom found THE TREE.

It was not exactly easy for him to get it out because he keep falling down in chest deep snow (which was pretty funny to watch).

By the end, the boys where cold, and tired, and we had a beautiful tree.

All and all, I would say it was a pretty successful hunt. Tom, was a bit disappointed when we got the tree up in the house, he thinks that it looked more full out in the forest, which may be true, but I love it. I think that it turned out lovely.

Camping in the Kitchen

Tom went camping with his Scouts the weekend before Thanksgiving; why, I am not sure, boys are just crazy. No surprize, but it rained the entire time they were out. So when Tom got home he draped the tent over the table in hopes that it would dry out. Well, our appartment is little, so having a tent laying over everything was not my idea of awesome, so after a day of this, I rolled it up, and stuck it in the corner.

A couple of days latter, Tom desided to set up the tent (yes, in the house) so make sure it was all dry. Owen and Talmage thought this was great. Owen insisted on sleeping in the tent.

So that night, we all camped out in the kitchen. It was silly, but the boys had a riot, and the blasted tent finally dried up.

Another Great One!

Once again, I am here to tell you that I Love Flash Mobs! How can they not make you smile?

Anyway, here is a new, and festive one. I am sure it will make you happy.

My Thanks Giving List

Here are some things that I was especially thankful for this year at Thanksgiving:

• Tom's job, and wonderful boss.
• Our house, and the Olson's for letting us live in their basement.
• That my sister's surgery went well.
• My parents, and for them being so loving and accommodating.
• Tom's mom, and her wisdom and foresight in deciding to celibate Thanksgiving the weekend before Turkey day.
• Brine Turkey. Mmmmmmm, so good.
• Dr. Vera Carlson, who is not our Primary Care Physicion, but was on call Thanksgiving weekend, and was willing to see our family on both Friday and Saturday, when our family all came down with Strep Throat.

And that none of our extended family cought Strep Throat from us (if you did, and I didn't know, I am truely sorry).

And that is my Thanksgiving List this year.

G.N.O.

All of Tom's siblings are in town this weekend, which has been really fun. But, for me, the most fun thing about having every body together, was that all of us Sisters-in-law and my Mother-in-law had a Girls Night Out. Our dear sweet husbands were kind enough to give us mom's a much needed break. So they kept ALL the kids (9 in all) up at Grammy's and gave us the night off.

It was so fun to just be able to just kick back and have a girls night. We ate "Girl Food," we soaked our feet, and we just gabbed the night away. I loved it! I got to know these ladies so much better. It was like a slumber party for mom's. Only it ended at 11:00. However, I think a slumber party would be sooooo much fun with my sisters-in-law. A weekend retreat! What a fabulous idea!

Thank you Fullmer Men, for giving us such a wonderful Girls Night Out!

Tender Mercy Moment

Do you ever have just a blah day? Where nothing is really wrong, but everything feels crummy? Well that was me today. My kids were grumpy, I was tired, I have not been out of my house in 5 days, and can't get out, because the weather has been less than great, and Tom has had the car. And to top it all off, Tom would not be coming home, because he is taking his scout troop camping (I know crazy to go out in the middle of November, but that is the Scouting Way).

So there I sat on my couch, just feeling sad, almost ready to cry, when all of the sudden my phone rings. I answer it and hear my sweet sister-in-law's happy voice, telling me that they just happen to be in town, and were wondering if I were up for some visitors. Holy cow, this was exactly what I needed; I honestly feel like I had not talked to an adult in ages. I almost started to cry, to realize that my Brother and Sister-in-law were thinking of me. I know, it may sound pathetic, but I was so touched, and felt very loved at that moment.

So they came over, and hung out for about an hour or so, and it was so fun. I hope they enjoyed themselves. I know I sure did. My brother and I used to hang out all the time, but then we both got married, I moved away, he and his wife both work full time; in short, life happens, and we obviously don't get to hang out as much as we used to. I really have missed that. It was so nice just to have a couple of hours to spend with him and his wife.

Thanks Brad and Kristen. I don't think you will ever know how much your visit meant to me.

You gotta love it

Flashmobs make me happy. In fact, I have a secret desire to be part of one someday. Wouldn't that be awesome. I think that I would smile for a week if I got to be part of one. Any way here is one that I saw today, that really made me smile:

In case you were wondering

If you ever wondered what it would be like if you let a two-and-a-half year-old dress himself, you might get a result like this:Notice the shirt is inside out, and the both the short and the shirt are on backwards. Not to mention, SHORTS!!! In November? Really?

***Sorry about the picture quality. They were taken with my cheep phone.

Daddy Dressed Me

I once thought that Tom had a better sense of style than I do. Now I am not so sure. Here are some samples of some of the outfits he has put Talmage in recently....

Bike Fun

I have been meaning to post about this for a while now....

We are a biking family. 5 years ago, I would have never guessed that I enjoyed biking. In fact, I really did not like it at all. Then, I met Tom, who seemed to bike everywhere he went. Then we moved to Portland, where biking is sort of the thing to do. Tom biked to school nearly every day while we were in Portland, but I did not have a bike, so my biking was minimal. Then one day, we happened upon a bike at a Garage Sale for a really good deal, so we got it. Thus beginning the Biking Era of my life.

We put a little Co-Pilot on the back of my bike, and we would go out for family bike rides all the time, and Owen and I would cruse around Portland running little errands. I even biked to the bank 9 months pregnant.

Anyway, now that we have 2 little monkeys, it was rather hard for all of us to go out for a ride, with just the Co-pilot. So we started looking into Biker Trailors. After a bit or research we decided to get a Chariot, because they are awesome. They are the ultimate Kiddie carrier; Jogger, Biker trailer, Skiing carrage, and a couple of other thing. Plus they have supuer high safery ratings.

Anywho, I decided to get a used one, because, well, it is much cheeper that way. And we LOVE it!!! Owen and Talmage love riding together. Tom and I love that we can go out for rides. And I love that I can take it out running. All and all, I think that it was the best purchace of the summer.

So Smart

Babies amaze me. I am always so surprised at how much they understand. Tal is only 10 months old, but I swear that he is comprehension is super advanced.

One of Talmage's favorite things to do is to climb all over me if I am lying down. Today, the boys were playing in their bedroom playing, so I lied down on the floor to stretch. Tom calls, "Talmage, come get Mommy!"

Next thing I hear is this shriek of elation, and Tal comes tearing down the hall as fast as his little arms and legs will carry him, and tackles me just as I am starting to sit up.

What a funny little guy. I did not realize that he understood language that well yet. What can I say, I a have a brilliant child.

32 Spankings

Today is Thomas' birthday. Poor guy has hardly even been home to celebrate. He had a staff meeting during lunch, then a recruiting meeting after work, and now he is at scouts. What a trooper. He did sneek home for about 10 minutes today, during which Owen attacted him with spankings. Tom informed him that he only got 16 spankings,which was the green light for Owen, and Tal, to spank him until he had to leave again. I am sure that he got well over the 32 spankings he was in store for.

My new blog

I decided to keep a blog of my sewing projects. I have been trying to do a bit of seamstress work, so I am kind of hoping this blog will not only be a good way to show some of the things I have made to my friends, but it can sort of act as a portfolio of sorts. So take a look and let me know what you think.

It is still a work in progress, so I have not posted a ton of projects, but it is still fun. If any of you can think of something that I have made that is not on my blog, please remind me of it.

here is the link:

http://stitchesbyrosie.blogspot.com/

If only it were so easy

I must admit, I love the way kid's brains work sometimes. Today Owen was sitting on the toilet, trying to do his business, when he says, "Mama, its not coming. I need help. You push down on my head."

What cleaver thinking. If only everything was that simple and intuitive.

Potty Party at Pizza Papa's

Today is a very BIG day! Finally, after what feels like months, Owen POOPed on the potty! He has had going Number 1 on the potty down for a while. But for some reason he was afraid to go poo on the potty. He always said "There is a spider in there that is going to bite me." Don't know where he got that from.

I have tried every thing to get this kid to do his business on the toilet. Finally, I told him that once he goes poopy on the potty, we will have a party at Papa's Pizza Place (my In-Laws own Pier 49 Pizza here in Cache Valley). That was great incentive, and he has been trying really hard for the past week, and today, he finally did it! He woke up from his nap and said that he had to go. So we ran to the bathroom, he sat down and promptly stood up, saying, "No the spider will bite me."

We played this game for the next hour. We even called his Daddy to see if Tom could talk him through it. Finally, I said, "Owen, I need to make dinner, so I am going to leave you pants off, if you need to go, then run to the potty." Not five minutes later, I hear Owen calling form the bathroom, "Mama! I did it!!!"

I ran to the bathroom, and sure enough, SUCCESS!

I asked him if he thought we could do that again, and he said "Yeah! No spider bit my bummy."

So tonight, we are having a Potty Party at Pizza Papa's. Hooray!

Sleeping Under the Stars

Bed time has always been a struggle with Owen. He refuses to got to bed by him self, and insists that either Tom or I stay with him until he falls asleep. Needless to say, we are rather sick of this game, so we though up a scheme to teach Owen how to fall asleep by himself. Every night before he goes to be we put a glow in the dar star up on his ceiling, if he cries, or gets out of his bed, we take it down. It took a couple of nights of loosing his one and only star before he figured it, out, but now he has a pretty good collection of stars on his ceiling. He was really proud to show them off to me the other day. This was his explanation of them:

"Mommy, these are my starts! I go to sleep by my selfs, and I get them, 2-4-5 of them!"

We are Going Home!

First off, let me point out that todays day is 8-9-10. Cool, ehh? Now on to my story...

For a couple of months now, Owen will periodically say something about how he wants to go home. Usually this is when we are in our house, so we tell him that all ready are home. A couple of weeks ago, when he said that he wanted to go home, I asked him if he meant Portland? He just looked at me like, "I have know idea what you mean."

Our friend, Jenn, is getting married this week, and we are going back to Portland for the wedding. I was telling Owen that we were going to visit Aphia (Jenn's daughter) at the end of the week, and he got so excited, and exclaims, "And Emma? And Jarom? Oh Mama! We are going home!!!"

Holy Cow, he was so excited. I started to cry, because realised how much he has missed Portland.

I am so excited for our little trip. I am surprised at how much I miss Portland, becasue I miss it A TON. I have some great friends, and found memories there. Don't get me wrong, I am glad to be in Cache Valley, but I will forever love Portland.

I can't wait to get to go back. Just a few more sort days.

Breakfast Help

This morning I woke up to the sound of pots and pans banging. Tom had already left for work, so I knew that Owen was up to no good. I got up and went to the kitchen to ask him what he was doing. And he says, "Hi Mama! I wanna make breakfast."

"You do? What do you want to make?

He had pulled out a sauce pan, and a miniature Jo!e Egg frying pan, which looks like this:

And he explains that he wants to "cook eggs and cer-we-ou."

"You want to make eggs and oatmeal?"

"We mama!" with a huge nod.

So, I pulled out the foot stool, and Owen stood at the stove, very excited to help make breakfast. He stirred the oatmeal, even flipped the egg, and even added the raisins to the oatmeal (he learned quickly that it is best to drop the raisins in, and not place them in: oatmeal is HOT). He especially liked the salt and pepper shaker; breakfast was VERY seasoned. Mmmm, delicious.

Holy Cow, I don't think I have ever seen that boy so excited to eat, and the best thing is that he ate his entire breakfast! Wow, I think I will have him help with dinner from now on if he eat everything he makes that well. I love having a little helper!

What Cute Kids!

One of my close family friends is a very gifted photographer. Yesterday she was so sweet and took pictures of my sister's new baby and 2 year-old, and my boys. look at this cute slide show she put together.

Click Here: Charisalie

Thanks Danette!

Tempo!!!

Last night we had are first successful Family Home Evening. Tom gave a little lesson about the Temple. After the lesson, we said a closing prayer, and asked Owen if he would like some Ice Cream for dessert. To our surprise he said, "No!" Then he went and picked up his coats and said, "Tempo, lets go!" Tom asked him,, "Owen, would you like to go and look at the temple right now?"

"Yea."

So we piled in the car and and drove to look at the temple. Every time he caught of glimpse of it, he would get so excited and say, "Look! Tempo!"

I love it! Tom and I could not stop smiling.

My New Great Endevor

A few days before we left Oregon, one of our friends invited us to one of those product parties (you know like Mary Kay or PartyLite, only this one you get food at). I really never love going to these parties, but I did not feel like cooking dinner, so we went. Here is a video that shows a little bit about the product that was show cased at this party.

Holy cow, it was so cool. The product is called Demarle. It is a flexible bakeware, and it is so awesome. You know all that silicon backing forms you can get at the store, well they are all cheep knock offs of this stuff. I was surprised at how quickly I fell in love with this product. Nothing sticks to this stuff, NOTHING! And the food that is cooked in is actually browns (which regular silicon bakeware does not brown food). Even Martha Stewart, Subway, the Cheese Cake Factory, and a ton of Food Network chefs us this stuff.

By the end of the party, I was just itching to find out how I could get involved with Demarle. It is that cool. So now, I am a new Demarle at Home Rep. I never thought I would be involved in the Home Party Network, but I am supper excited about it. So if you every want to host a Demarle Party, let me know.

I am going to have my 1st party on Friday Night at 6:30. Anyone is welcome to come. Let me know if you wanna come.

I have a Two Year-Old!

Owen is now officially Two! Ever since Talmage was born, I have been telling people that Owen is 2, but as of yesterday, He Really is two!!!!

We decided to go sledding to celibrate his birthday. Here are some pictures of Owen, Tom, Cousin Liam, and Uncle Bill:

After Sledding we had a little Pizza Party at our house. Of course we had cake and Icecream. Owen LOVES Trains, so I attempted to make a Train Cut-Cake. I got the pattern Here. Look at how cute it is!!!!! I think I did a good job.

Here are some more pictures from the party:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Bubba!!!!!!